


Red Ribbon

by Judithan



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Alter Universe - Link has five boyfriends maybe more, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Eventual Smut, Gen, Gerudo King Ganondorf, M/M, Multi, Rating May Change, Sheik is a Separate Character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-01
Updated: 2018-10-04
Packaged: 2019-07-23 13:57:07
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,831
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16160300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Judithan/pseuds/Judithan
Summary: A very self-indulgent AU for Breath Of The Wild in where Link and Zelda are siblings and Link has a bunch of boyfriends.Zelda, having been sealed inside of Hyrule Castle on the day of the Calamity by her own protection barrier, must be saved before it's too late. Link is sent on a mission to contact the Champions of the Divine Beast's to try and put an end to this. On the way, he runs into some unexpected challenges, as well as unexpected feelings.Will eventually have a ton of fluff.





	1. Prolouge

“Zelda… I promise. I’ll rescue you.” Were the last words Link could say to his sister before being dragged out of the crumbling castle by Impa. These were the very last moments he could see Zelda, smiling through determined tears. All he could give her were his words… what were they even worth? Could he even hold his promise?

Just making it outside of the barrier in time, he realized just what kind of hell Zelda was divising for herself. A solid wall made up the boundary of the barrier, impenetrable with bare hands. Not that Link didn’t try, he wailed on the barrier, trying with all of his might to get into it, but to no avail.

“It’s no use. She’s locked it tight. Nothing is going to be getting in… or getting out, hopefully.” Impa spoke, pensive, quiet. She had a tear in her eyes, but still held strong.

“It’s… nothing is moving in there…” As Link spoke, he noticed that nothing on the other side of the barrier was moving, as if it were stuck fast in time.

“A time stop barrier… clever, dear girl. I knew you would figure out what you had to do in time.” A smile danced her lips, but only barely. She looked worn, staring hopelessly into the barrier, staring at the Calamity in front of them.

-

Impa had been a part of their lives from the very beginning.

From childhood, she had been the one they had always turned to. A member of the royal guard, and yet a kind enough soul to have found two orphaned children and to have taken them in herself. It was no easy task, to have suddenly become their caretaker, their mentor, their instructor in battle… their mother.

“You have to shield like this when you do an attack like that, otherwise you’re leaving yourself completely prone on your left side!” Her words were harsh, being barked out without care of lightness. Zelda and Link understood, knowing it was important.

It wasn’t long after they had been adopted into what was essentially the Royal Family when the King had gained interest in Zelda.

She was smart, he remarked, incredibly so. Link knew this, he bragged about it. “My sister’s the smartest! She could read twenty books in a day, I bet!” He was young, naive, but he meant it.

What he didn’t realize is that she would be destined for greater things.

Long days of being taught the Ancient Language, longer hours of learning proper prayer to the Goddess and mental strength training to be able to speak to her. To be able to conduct the Goddess’s will became her mission, her goal, her duty. She couldn’t say no, nor did she want to. To be given a purpose like this… it was only natural of someone to accept.

“Someday, Zelda, you will need to use the skills you’ve acquired here…” The King lamented to her. Often it was the end of long days that he would end up at this feeling. “I’m sorry, my dear child. This isn’t a burden I wanted to bear upon you.” His words were soft, and Zelda couldn’t hardly help but to smile back to the King.

“It’s alright. As long as I can save everyone, then this is worth it, isn’t it?”

Save everyone… from the Calamity that was to approach.

An evil that had been stirring, lingering, plotting. An evil that would destroy Hyrule… they had forseen it, prophesied it, and yet had no real way of fighting it.

That was, until the Divine Beasts became unearthed. Giant beasts of incredible power, of which were to be piloted by Champions of the neighboring regions, the greatest fighters and warriors the land had to offer.

Link had met one of them in his youth, the Rito Champion Kass, a baladist who had come to the castle on several occasions to instruct Zelda in music. One of the others, he had actually grown up with, the Hylian Knight Groose, who had been chosen instead of Link as the Head Knight, on account that Link would need to protect the Chosen Maiden. Throughout their school years, they had remained ...friends? Rivals? He didn't know. Regardless, he knew Groose had long since left Hyrules Castle Town in order to train. It had been so long since he had seen Groose he couldn't hardly remember when the last time they spoke was.

The logistics of the plan of attack were simple: once the Calamity attacked, the Champions would don their Divine Beasts and conquer over evil. It was a simple, efficient plan - of course the real plan went far more into detail, but to surmise, it should have worked.

Except, as with all plans, there were errors made.

Errors that left Zelda paralyzed in a frozen time space, unable to communicate to others. Errors that left the Divine Beasts’ unusable by the Champions and nearly resulted in the deaths of them. Errors that left Link with no family to return home to, and no solid future.

“I can’t just sit around feeling sorry for myself...” Link placed a hand firmly to the barrier that withheld Hyrule Castle from his grasps. “But… Zelda… please stay safe. Until I can get you out of there, please, please stay alive.” It was barely loud enough to be heard, but the weight of the words bore on him.  


“Link, I need you to do something.” Impa spoke to Link, but her eyes stayed fixed inside the barrier, as if trying to sense for Zelda.

“Hmm?”

“I need to stay in Hyrule Castle Town, to keep watch on this barrier in case anything were to… escape.” A moment of hesitation emphasized her acknowledgement of self sacrifice were anything to happen. Sobering, in all honesty. “There is a young man I need you to go to, he will be able to help you in a journey I need you to take.”

“A journey? Where?”

“To gather up the Champions, to gather the Divine Beasts, and to get our forces concentrated on destroying the Calamity.”

“...Who do I need to find?”

“His name is Sheik, you can find him in Kakariko Village, it is to the south east of Hyrule Castle Town. If you show him that-” She pointed to the Sheikah Slate on Link’s hip, an artifact that was gifted to him by Impa herself. “He will know who you are, and he will help you.”

“I… I understand.” He swallowed hard, wiping his face of any tears. Even if he wasn’t certain, he had to do this. If there was any way Link could save Zelda, he had to do it. With resolve in his step, he began to walk away.

“And Link…?” Link turned back to Impa. “Remember what I taught you… Survive.”


	2. Kakariko

“Is this... Kakariko?” Link looked around, disheveled, and in a touch of disarray. “Wow, I wasn’t expecting a town this big.” He spoke quietly to himself, admiring the lit lanterns that greeted him upon entrance.

The villagers and guards in the town were friendly as he walked through, bowing and waving at him, and he followed in suit. Perhaps they didn’t get visitors often? Though it seemed to be a fairly bustling town, so maybe they were just courteous there.

It wasn’t until he had arrived at the head estate building that he realized what all the fuss was about.

“You are Master Link, are you not?” One of the guards spoke out to him. “We’ve received word from Impa that we should be expecting you.”

“Was I really that slow that word of my visit got here faster than me? Geez…” Link spoke quietly under his breath. “Wait… I’m expected? You know who I am?”

“Your Slate.” The guard pointed out.

“...Oh.” Of course. It wasn’t like Hylians just walked around with extremely rare and important Sheikah technology all the time. In fact, he was fairly certain he had one out of probably less than a dozen. The other Champions also had Slates, as far as he knew.

The guards allowed Link’s entrance to the estate, and he could only feel himself being left breathless. Both by the unwieldy amount of stairs and also by the incredible view of the waterfall behind it. Without much dawdling, he pushed the double doors open and stepped inside.

Inside of the estate, he was left face to face with a young man.

“Hello.” He seemed… nice?

His outfit was very traditional of the sheikah guards, form fitting athletic garb worn under looser white cloak. The front and back of the cloak bore the same symbol - the Eye of Truth, one that held high importance to the Sheikah as Impa had once explained to him. The man had piercing red eyes, not unlike Impa’s, and short blonde hair that covered his right eye.

In all honesty… he looked cool.

“My name is Link. I-” He had rehearsed what he would say a hundred times but nothing ever sounded right. Now it was make or break, he couldn’t mess it up. “I was sent by Impa. She told me to come find you. Said you could help…”  _ ‘help me save my sister who I failed to protect’ _ he wanted to say, but he held it in. It wasn’t this man’s business to bear that mental burden.

“I'm Sheik. I am a disciple of Lady Impa, and… I believe I can be of aid to you, Your Highness.”

“Your Highness? Oh, no, please, just call me Link. I'm not in line for the throne, or anything like that.” Waving his hands, Link couldn't help but feel embarrassed at the implication. Did people see him as some kind of prince? The thought had never even crossed his mind.

“Understood. Has Impa told you where you need to go in order to find the Champions?” Sheik got right to business.

“No, she didn't have time, said you would know what to do.”

Sheik sighed briefly. “Well, it's not going to be an easy task seeking out the Champions. We should prepare ourselves to travel far.”

“...h-how far?” Link gulped, uncertain. It wasn't often he had to travel, he had barely gone outside the boundaries of Castle Town in his entire dozen years of living there. Something told him his natural homebody disposition would be compromised for the next few weeks, if not months. Sigh… but… if it meant saving Zelda then he would do so under any means necessary.

“Well, we shouldn't have to travel too far, since we have the Shrines that we can transport to.” Sheik pointed out, as if it were nothing.

“T-transport? Like teleporting?!” His voice was high with excitement.

“Yeah, you just tap on the shrine you want to go to in the network. Some might be temporarily offline, though.” Sheik said calmly, as if he hadn't just shaken Link's entire world. This was… this was incredible! “It’s still in development so there’s a lot of work to be done. Our lead rune expert has been working on it diligently, though.”

Link was absolutely floored by what Sheik had to say.

“So where do you think we should go first for the Champions?” Link asks, pulling out his own Slate for a moment to check to see if he also had the transport functionality - he did! Sweet! “I only know where maybe one of them would be.”

“Hmm, I'm aware of the Zoran Champion. He resides in the Zora’s Domain, so we could check there first.”

“That sounds fine to me.”

“It looks like the shrine inside Zora's Domain is offline but there’s another one just nearby that’s up, so I can get us pretty close, but it looks like we're in for a hike, and maybe a fight if there are monsters afoot.” A lump formed in Link's throat. Monsters… just great.

“Are you good to fight?”

“Hah, are you kidding me?” He gave an overdramatic smile with a cool draw of his sword. “I'm Zelda's knight! I protect the Goddess herself!”  _ 'I failed her and she's going to die if I fail again.’  _ A voice in the back of his mind yelled at him but he held true to his show, and Sheik could only nod and give a small applause in return.

“Alright. With both of us it shouldn't be too tough of a trek up.” He pulled up a node on the slate. “Are you ready?”

“Uh, yeah, as ready as I'll ever be.”

“I apologize in advance, but for this to work we have to be touching. I'm a bit uh… cautious about this sort of thing, so I am going to have to ask you to hold tightly onto my midsection.” Sheik stood right up to Link, and it was now that Link noticed just how much taller the Sheikah was than him.

“Hold on tight…?” Link questioned.

“If I am to be your retainer like Impa has instructed, I need you to trust me on this.” Even if he was still confused, Link still nodded.

If Impa trusted him enough to send Link all the way to enlist his help, then he could trust him.

With a hesitant start, Link held strongly on Sheik’s waist. It was a strange feeling, for sure, but if it meant that it would work, then he had to trust in what Sheik had to say.

“Ready? Let’s go.” And with a push of a button, Link felt weightlessness for the first time ever, and the two were promptly shipped off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> art for chapter: https://judithan.tumblr.com/image/178649785570  
> just a little doodle but I couldn't help it


	3. Chapter 3

Arriving at the Shrine, Link wasn’t sure what he was supposed to expect. It was a strange structure for a building, with a small node and platform suggesting it went further down. Though, since Sheik seemed to pay it no mind he figured he could do to ignore it as well.

“Have you ever been to a Shrine?” He asks, and Link shakes his head. “They’re incredible structures that were left here by the Ancients. My people have worked hard to unearth their true meaning, but maybe…” He trails off for a moment, staring intently at Link. “Maybe it has something more to do with the prophecy than expected.”

“Huh?” Link was confused. Prophecy? He knew that Zelda had her own fate determined by it… but had he? It would make sense, but he hadn’t even really considered it.

...Was his own fate being kept from him this whole time?

Surely, it was just for his own protection, or the notion that it may never come to be. Wishful thinking, right? He couldn’t imagine anything else, it would just be too much to think about.

“...When we return to Kakariko, I can show you the tapestry, it foretells the future. It is why Princess Zelda is where she is.”

“...Princess?” He asks under his breath. They really were viewed as royalty by outsiders!

“Enough on that, though, we need to make it up there-” Sheik turns around, pointing upwards in the general direction of a giant mountain. “Beyond those cliffs lies Zora’s Domain.” Link took the moment to look at his Sheikah Slate, checking out the map.

“Around here?” He pointed to a strange structure on the screen.

“Yeah, that’s the main structure of the domain. Have you ever been here?”

“No, I haven’t. And I only ever met the Zoran Champion once, at the Champion Knighting Ceremony.” That was a little over a year ago, and since then so much had happened he didn’t think to keep in touch with any of the Champions like Zelda had. He regretted it now, but there was no going back.

“I see. Well, hopefully his reputation proceeds him and he is in fact an upstanding individual as I’ve heard.” Link nodded, and they set off.

The walk up the path was slick, a persistent rain making it impossible to climb even if it would have been faster.

Somewhere about half ways up the mountain path they bumped paths with a Zoran guard on patrol.

“You're heading up to Zora’s Domain? Be careful as you proceed up the mountain.” He warned from the roaring river. “There are monsters afoot, and you don’t want to be caught off-guard by them.” It was nice to know the guards were at least actively patrolling the area. This was still quite a ways away from Zora’s domain so it was a bit of a surprise.

“Thank you, we’ll keep wary.” Sheik said with a determined nod, and the Zora swam off.

“That’s pretty cool of them, don’t you think?” Link spoke once out of earshot.

“Yeah, I suppose so.”

The two walked in silence for a good while of the trek up, occasionally having to help each other over a stray tree branch or obstacle on the path. It was a nice tempo they had ended up at, and before not too long they had already made good progress up the mountain.

“You really… *huff* weren’t kidding about the hike…” Link got out through heavy breaths, and Sheik couldn’t help but laugh lightly in response.

“Sorry about that, yeah, it’s quiet a trip up.”

“We’re getting close though, right?”

“Yeah I think -” Sheik stopped, whipping his head to stare at Link, before tackling him to the ground. “Watch out!”

“Oof-!” A winded cry left Link’s mouth, and it would have ended with more obscenities directed at Sheik if not for the bladed boomerang that wizzed right past where his head was.

“Are you okay?” Sheik asked, panicked eyes quickly assessing him. Link nodded, dumbfounded. Without any other confirmation, Sheik stood, hand reaching for the short blade on the back of his hip.l

Looking across to where the boomerang had come from, Link sees a lone Lizalfos ready to strike.

Sheik wasted no time lunging at the beast, taking a few quick slices of his short sword to lay waste to it. Within seconds they were out of danger thanks to Sheik. Link could only stare on amazed.

“T-thank you. I would’ve been a goner…” Sheik offers Link a hand to stand up, and he takes it.

Now on his feet, Link gets a better view of his surrounding, noticing the small burrow the Lizalfos had made as shelter. No wonder they had gotten ambushed so easily. He walks a few stop to the side, picking up the bladed boomerang, turning it over in his hands.

“This is really sharp…” He mutters.

“Yes, it certainly is.” Link hadn’t noticed Sheik standing just behind him and let out a loud yelp. If they weren’t already being watched, they most certainly were now.

“Hey, you shouldn’t sneak up on me like that!” If it weren’t for the tight grip he had on the boomerang he may have dropped it.

“Sorry.” Is all Sheik responds with, pausing for a moment to listen intently.

“Hear something?” Like whispers, leaning in, trying to listen as well. Unfortunately his ears weren’t quite as acutely tuned as the Sheikah’s were.

Being trained as and earning rank as the highest knight in Hyrule, it was expected that Link knew how to fight, and if his credentials mattered he Knew how to fight. But… he had hardly gotten into any real fights even after being made a knight. The prospect of fighting a real living thing to the death… it made his knees shake and stomach churn.

“I think we're alone for now, but we should stay on full alert. I'll take the front, you follow behind, alright?” Sheik clearly had experience in this, and Link couldn't help but be thankful. If it weren't for his advice he'd likely have just brute forced his way through. Not a bad idea, considering he could more than handle himself in a fight, but it probably would get exhausting very quickly.

It was nice having company on this journey, he decided.

“Sounds good to me, lead the way.” Link nodded briefly, and they set off once more.

Sheik stayed no more than two paces in front of Link, making sure to check back that he was directly behind him. Hopefully like this they wouldn't have to worry about running into trouble.

It wasn't long before they ended up at an illuminated path, giant pillars glowing over a pearlescent, damp bridge. It seemed they had finally arrived at the Zora's Domain.

On the bridge they noticed a lone Zora, bright red and rather striking in sparkling attire. Before they had even gotten close to him, he seemed to make note of their presence. In fact, he seemed to be approaching them unprovoked.

Link looked at Sheik, who only reciprocated the confusion.

“Hello there travelers!” The Zora spread his (exceptionally toned) arms out, as if to greet the two of them. “Pardon me, but are the both of you Hylian?”

“I'm Hylian.” Link raised a hand up, as if volunteering.

“Sheikah.” Was all Sheik had to offer, pointing to the emblem on his chest. (Sheikah were considered a race of Hylians)

“Perfect!” The Zora exclaimed, a spark lighting in his eyes. “I am Prince Sidon, Crown Prince of the Zoras. Pleased to make your acquaintances,” He paused. “I just realized I hadn't asked for either of your names.”

“Wait a second, you're Sidon? As in the Zora Champion?” Link seemed to not hear the question, on account of his own excitement. “Wow, it really was easy to find you.”

“My name is Sheik, this is Link.” Sheik spoke up, and Sidon nodded.

“I see. Well, I hope you don't find this rude but I had been watching the two of you from afar. You both handle your own spectacularly!” He boasted, and Link couldn't help but feel flushed. “I have a … well, a rather large favor to ask of the both of you.”

Link looked at Sheik, sceptic but listening.

“What's this… favor?”

“These rains.” Sidon started. “They have plagued my home nonstop over the last few days, since Vah Ruta had stopped responding to my command. I believe she has been angered in some way, and if this were to keep up…” A stern look crossed his face. “Zora's Domain would be in trouble of being swallowed up by the water, but we Zora would survive. What I'm worried about is the flooding down onto lower sections of the mountain. There are several Hylian inhabitants at the base of the mountain who would all be in grave danger if it were to flood.”

The reality of the situation fully dawned on Link. He could feel his heart racing at the thought alone, he had to do something to stop this!

“We need to do something about this then!”

“...Master Link, I am moved! Thank you!” Sidon’s posture slumped a bit, relief crossing his face. “We should speak to my Father at once. As King, he should be able to help us in quieting the Divine Beast!”

“Sheik, let's go.” Link nodded triumphantly, and Sheik nodded back.

“Yes.” And as three, they set off.


End file.
